The Front Page - Adaptations

Adaptations

The Front Page has been adapted to film a number of times:

• The Front Page (1931), starring Adolphe Menjou and Pat O'Brien.
• His Girl Friday (1940) directed by Howard Hawks considered the best of the adaptations, starring Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell.
• The Front Page (1974), directed by Billy Wilder, starring Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau.
• Switching Channels (1988), starring Burt Reynolds and Kathleen Turner, with the newspaper reporters updated to television reporters and none of the original dialogue retained.

The 1931 rendition was brought to radio in 1948 by "Academy Award Theater," with Menjou and O'Brien reprising their roles from the film.

His Girl Friday and Switching Channels changed the male lead Hildebrand 'Hildy' Johnson to females Hildegaard 'Hildy' Johnson and Christy Colleran respectively. John Varley's 1991 science fiction novel Steel Beach takes the story — and the change of sex — to another level; the plot includes a sex-change by a male reporter named Hildy Johnson.

There have also been four television productions, all under the title The Front Page:

• 1945, in the US,
• 1948, in the UK,
• 1949–1950, in the US as a series,
• 1970, in the US

The musical Windy City (book and lyrics by Dick Vosburgh, music by Tony Macaulay) was also based on The Front Page. It premiered at the Victoria Palace Theatre, London, England on July 20, 1982 and ran for 250 performances.